brand spanking new and scared

That's right, new to OMC. The scared part; this is my first I/O and more than that, my first motorboat.

As you might guess, I need help. I'm hoping that the members of this list who are more experienced than I (that being everyone) will be able to point me toward references and give me advice that will help me maintain and restore my boat, as well as keep me from getting killed. I bought this boat yesterday from a man who bought it only to get some other parts that the previous owner was unwilling to sell without the boat thrown in as part of the deal. It's a 19ft 1967 Johnson, and from the information I've gathered, I believe it's a Surfer. I need to know what kind of maintanence schedule I should be on and where I could get parts, most immediately a cover; are there patterns available? My wife grew up with an I/O, so I'll be following her lead for a while when it comes to driving, but neither of us know what it takes to maintain one of these. Should I spend the $60 for the manual for the 200hp buick motor? Things I have been told: store the boat with the lower unit lowered (I'm in Minnesota so winter is a factor here), remove some hoses during winter to allow the motor to drain, run the blower before starting so as not to blow myself up, BE VERY WARY OF DEPTH. I have never seen so many boats as I have here in northern Minnesota, so I expect no shortage of advice, but I will gratefully accept any words of wisdom that the members of this list have to offer. I currently have no place to store the boat indoors so I will be buying/making a cover for storage. We fired up the motor for half a second to check for ignition, fuel, etc and it sounded good. What kinds of problems might I encounter when I put it in?

I will send pictures to be posted on the sighting board and maybe someone can tell me what I have.

Thank you all in advance for your advice.

Sincerely,

Kirk Suffka
Received on Wednesday, 7 May 2003